


Kindergarten

by imjusttheoutgoingsidekick



Series: Modern Newsies Au [1]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: And it's adorable, Fluff, Legit pure fluff, They're in kindergarten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 16:20:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14524485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imjusttheoutgoingsidekick/pseuds/imjusttheoutgoingsidekick
Summary: Jack meets someone new on his first day of school





	Kindergarten

The August sun was warm, but Jack couldn't tell. He was stuck inside on this beautiful day. He should have been outside, playing tag with the boys from his neighborhood and coming up with a nickname for the new kid down the street. But here he was, stuck in a classroom. Jack decided that kindergarten was stupid.

He looked around the brightly colored classroom, seeing if he recognized any of the kids in his class. Obviously he recognized his brother Charlie. Other than that he saw the Jacobs twins, Sarah and Davey, who lived across the street from him. He also recognized Elmer, Blink, Romeo, Specs and the new kid that had moved in down the street. He was the one that needed a nickname.

Most of Jack’s friends had nicknames. Charlie was called Crutchie because of the crutch he used, and Andy was called Blink because of his eye patch. Specs was called Specs because of the large glasses that took up most of his face, and Romeo wasn’t technically a nickname, but it fit him because he was always giving flowers to the girls and boys when they went to summer camp. They sometimes called David Walking Mouth because he talked a lot.

So obviously, if this boy was going to join their group, he would need a nickname. But that was a problem for recess, because now, the teacher was saying it was time for art. Jack grinned widely, art was always his favorite part of summer camp. Maybe school wouldn’t be so bad if he got to do art every day.

They filed out of the classroom and went down to a small room at the end of the hall. Inside there were paintings all over the walls and paints in the tables, and a young woman with neat red hair tied up in a bun.

“Hello girls and boys, I’m Ms. Hannah, and I teach art here at Hudson Elementary. Today we are going to paint flowers!” Jack giggled, Ms. Hannah had a funny voice. “Please take an apron and sit down at the tables. You may sit wherever you like, as long as you don’t touch the paints yet.”

Ms. Hannah smiled and went around the tables, helping each child tie their apron and giving them a brush and a paper.

“Now, remember to wash your brush off like this,” she swished her paintbrush around in a cup of water, “before you use a different color. Does anyone know why this is important?”

Jack nearly fell out of his seat, stretching up and raising his hand as high as he could. Ms. Hannah smiled, “you, with the blue apron,” she pointed at Jack. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jack!” He gave her a wide, gap toothed grin.

“Okay Jack, why is it important for us to wash the paintbrushes?”

“Because if you don’t, you could mix colors! And mixing colors isn’t pretty.” 

“That’s right Jack, and we want our pictures to be pretty, don’t we?”

“Yes Ms. Hannah,” the children replied.

“Okay, you may begin!”

Jack reached over Sarah’s paper to dip his brush in the green paint. He smiled and began painting stalks for his flowers. Most of the other children were joking and fooling around while they worked, but not Jack. He wanted to paint extra pretty flowers for Ms. Hannah, to show her how much he liked her and her art class.

When Jack was finished, he raised his hand. “Ms. Hannah, I’m done, what do I do now?”

Ms. Hannah smiled, “well Jack, first you can wash off you paintbrush and put it in the sink. Then you can take a coloring sheet to color while you wait for class to be over.” She handed him a box of crayons, “and you can write your name on your painting and leave it in the back to dry. That’s another important lesson, an artist always signs their work.”

Jack nodded, and used a blue crayon to write his name in the top right corner of the painting, before taking it back to the counter. He washed off his paintbrush and sat it in the sink, then returned to his seat to color the kitten coloring sheet he had gotten from Ms. Hannah.

After art, it was time for math. Today, since it was only the first day of school, they were learning shapes. Jack didn’t quite understand what shapes had to do with math, but he was happy to sit and identify circles squares and triangles that were around the classroom. After that, they learned about their school.

Finally, after what seemed like forever to Jack and the other children, it was time for recess and lunch.

Kindergartners at Hudson Elementary got to eat outside on the grass on the front lawn of the school.

“Hey Romeo,” Jack called, “got anything you wanna trade?”

“I’ll give you my crackers for your orange,” Romeo held out a pack of peanut butter crackers to Jack.

“Deal.”

Jack swapped around a few more times with some of his other friends, ending up with a bologna sandwich, crackers, and a cookie that Sarah and David’s mom had baked.

Jack was beginning to like kindergarten.

After they ate, it was recess time, and that meant games. But first, Jack needed to give the new boy a nickname. He had already introduced himself as Antonio, and sat with Jack and his friends at lunchtime. Once they were on the playground, the first thing they did was take off running. Antonio ran faster that Jack or any of the other boys, or even Sarah for that matter, and that’s when Jack decided his nickname. He whispered it to Blink, and then David, and they both agreed.

“What are you guys talking about, is it a secret?” Antonio wasn’t even out of breath.

“I came up with your nickname! We’re gonna call you Racetrack! Race for short,” Jack smiled and spit in his hand, holding it out. Race did the same, and they shook.

”Yay!” Race took off running, “race ya,” he called over his shoulder.

Jack grinned and ran after him, taking a lap around the playground before getting tired and sitting down in the grass.

He noticed a little girl sitting by herself in the grass under the big magnolia tree. She was pretty, with auburn hair that curled around her face and eyes that sparkled in the light. Jack picked a few flowers (weeds) from the grass around him and went to sit next to her.

“Hi! I’m Jack,” he held the flowers out to her but she ignored them.

“Go away, I’m working.”

“Working!?” Jack was appalled, it was recess, not work time, was she in trouble? “Why are you working?”

“Because I’m smart,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“Oh, a smart girl.” Jack liked smart girls, “smart girls are cool.”

She sighed.

“Well,” Jack said, “I have to go now, because all girls except Sarah have cooties, and I can’t get cooties.” He turned to leave, but remembered his manners. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Katherine.”

“It was nice to meet you Katherine,” Jack smiled and waved as he ran back to his friends, ready for a game of tag.

Neither of them knew, but that was the beginning of a great friendship.

**Author's Note:**

> comments make my life!


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